At the end of 2017 and while imperialists and their international organizations boast about a globalized economy which, step by step, overcomes global capitalist crisis, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) figures refute the statements of imperialists and multinationals’ representatives, especially in the Latin America region.

However, the figures concerning hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean are revealing. According to the FAO Regional Office, hunger is on the rise in Latin America and the Caribbean. The number of people suffering from hunger increased by 2,4 million from 2015 to 2016, reaching a total of 42,5 millions, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017.

As the FAO publications affirm: “The new data set shows that hunger in 2013 affected 39,1 million people (6,3 percent of the regional population), rising to 40,1 million in 2015 (6,3 percent) and reaching 42,5 million in 2016, 6,6 percent of the regional population.”

For the international class-oriented trade union movement it is not acceptable, as we advance into the 21st Century, for people to die from hunger or not being able to cover their basic needs. At the same time as the technological and scientific achievements could guarantee the well-being of the peoples of this region, imperialist forces, multinationals and monopolies keep plundering and depriving the workers of the region from their natural wealth and resources.

Therefore, the WFTU reaffirms that the only way out for the working class of the whole region is found in the struggles for a more just world, without capitalist barbarity; for a world where those who produce the wealth will be the owners of national resources. Only in this way the criminal phenomena of hunger, malnutrition, poverty and widespread misery will be eliminated. The WFTU, on its part, is committed to keep fighting until man by man exploitation is finally abolished.